David Gregory Campaigning for 8-Figure Salary

I've never been impressed with David Gregory's reporting which says something about the times because I consider him one of the better big name reporters of this era. It's a pathetic era for journalism and most of the finest journalism in the last five years has been by reporters who are considerably less well-paid than network darlings like David Gregory. In other words, the finest reporting has often been by people who are not big names (feel free to list in the comments section some of the better known reporters who manage to do a fine job). One of the ironies about David Gregory is that he is not well-liked by the right or well-liked by the left. Somehow that seems to make him, what?, an even-handed reporter?

But the reality of network and cable news is that nobody watches you unless you're controversial. Perhaps David Gregory figures his chances for a good eight figure salary will come if he utters ridiculous points on the news.

Think Progress has a David Gregory gem from the Chris Matthews show:

On the Chris Matthews Show this morning, NBC White House correspondent David Gregory said that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) will need to have “her ‘Sister Souljah’ moment” and distance herself from the “hatred over Iraq” on “the left.”

“The left” needs to “think about how they’re going to engage the war on terror in a very serious and tough way,” said Gregory.

(snip)

...68 percent of Americans support withdrawal from Iraq within a year.

David Gregory's stereotypes about those who oppose Bush's fiasco in Iraq don't help the debate. In fact, it makes Gregory look rather uninformed. President Bush has, in fact, united rational conservatives, moderates (real moderates not the network faux brand), liberals and even people to the left of this blogger (I'm a liberal Democrat who traces his beliefs to FDR, Truman and Kennedy). A majority of Americans are disgusted with the fiasco in Iraq and Bush's arrogant, incompetent and stubborn behavior. That's really not too difficult to understand, not even for a reporter.

So many Washington reporters and pundits have made gaffes in the last five years that I usually leave it to other bloggers to cover them. It's a fulltime job to keep up with the nonsense coming out of Washington that tries to pass itself off as 'conventional wisdom.'

Our nation, however, is in constitutional crisis, and David Gregory is either in denial or too busy working on that eight figure salary. And it's not Gregory's only offense in the last month.

Last month, Gregory interviewed Elizabeth Edwards and made some bizarre assertions as he interviewed her; here's the story from Americablog:

... According to NBC's David Gregory we're all missing the very important points that Ann Coulter makes because we get caught up in her hate speech. He just said to Elizabeth Edwards "if you strip away some of the inflammatory rhetoric against your husband and other Democrats, the point she's trying to make about your husband, Senator Edwards, running for the White House is in effect that he's disingenuous..."

Okay, so much wrong with the way Gregory defends Coulter. Her hateful, inflammatory rhetoric can't be stripped away -- and let's be honest, that's why NBC and ABC put her on their t.v. shows. In typical fashion, he also tries to paint everyone with the same kind of hate speech. So, instead of putting Coulter on, NBC now has one of their top reporters defending her approach. Because, you know, if you strip away the fact that Coulter advocated the assassination of a leading presidential candidate, and mocked his dead son, there's really such an important message buried inside.

Huh? Says so much.

Elizabeth Edwards handled it well, pretty much laughing at him -- and made the key point -- this is not about stripping away hateful rhetoric. The hate speech is the issue. ...

Both Think Progress and Americablog have video of David Gregory making his ridiculous assertions. Click on the links and they'll take you to the videos. Seeing and hearing is believing. It's just a shame that the process of pointing out poor news reporting may help Gregory reach that eight figure salary. But these are, of course, absurd times.